Developer: Mazen Games
Release Date: March 12, 2021
MSRP: $9.99
I almost missed this one entirely, having forgotten that I had a copy sitting unredeemed from the May 2021 Humble Choice. I think I initially didn’t have a lot of interest in it because the game description mentions that it “turns into a platformer” as you proceed. Platforming games & I seldom get along, so I originally intended to pass this one along to someone who would likely enjoy it more.
After playing for about an hour, my fears of platforming were completely unfounded. Size Matters is primarily a first person time management game, as you race the clock to create an antidote for the shrinking potion you’ve accidentally ingested. If you take too long collecting and processing ingredients, you will be unable to reach everything in the lab without climbing the counters, which – at least to me – feels nothing at all like platforming.
There’s a brief tutorial, which teaches you how to use all the equipment in the lab that you’ll need to make an antidote, and four standard difficulty levels. You can also customize the difficulty to your taste, or play in either low gravity or tiny mode. I decided to progress linearly through the standard difficulties, and was able to complete a round in Beginner, Normal, and Hard without, well, too much difficulty.
Each round is timed; run out of time, and you’ve shrunk yourself to death. You will have to find a set number of ingredients (which are all just chemicals in beakers) and track down all the parts of the formula to figure out how to use them. In the lower difficulties, some of the formulas are displayed on chalkboards, while some are on notepads you’ll need to rummage through drawers and cabinets in order to find.
It probably won’t take you long to develop a strategy, and once you’ve got a strategy that works, it makes the game far less challenging. For me, tearing through the lab looking for all the pieces I’m going to need before starting to manipulate the ingredients seems to be most successful. Higher difficulties have more ingredients and more formulas and therefore more steps that all take up time, so moving quickly and methodically is pretty key.
Size Matters has oodles of achievements, and since everything seems to be procedurally generated, you can’t just memorize your way to efficiency and a better time. Succeed or fail, a single level can be played in less than 15 minutes, so it works well for a bite-sized gaming fix. I definitely enjoyed playing Size Matters and can see myself going back to it for a round or two now and then, but unless you’re chasing achievements, it’s not likely to be the kind of game you play for long sessions or over consecutive weeks.
SteamDB estimates that Size Matters has sold somewhere between 6,400 and a 17,500 copies on Steam. It’s rated Very Positive, and ranked 1,349 out of 10,967 games released in 2021.
Nerd Girl Thoughts 